


and i never minded being on my own / then something broke in me

by toskyewardandbeyond



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: 1x04 episode tag, F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-26
Updated: 2016-12-26
Packaged: 2018-09-12 10:11:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,058
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9067240
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/toskyewardandbeyond/pseuds/toskyewardandbeyond
Summary: Henry has already thrown her, talking about code names and what he should call her (mom, the voice in the back of her mind whispers), and she just moved in with Mary Margaret, and now she’s being offered a job. 
It’s a lot, for a woman as independent as she is. As independent as she’s always been.
For Henry, it’s a welcomed change.
For everyone else, it’s red flags.
 
or, Graham offers Emma the job as a deputy and the road she takes to accepting the position.





	

**Author's Note:**

> for bpdjessmariano and the gremma secret santa event. disclaimer, i am TERRIBLE at writing gremma, but i hope you like it anyway.

‘What’s with the siren?’

He quips back something about getting her attention, and she smiles. Definitely an improvement since his sorry excuse for a joke about the local signs, but only just.

And then he’s offering her a job, and she feels…

Well, she feels a lot.

Henry has already thrown her, talking about code names and what he should call her ( _mom_ , the voice in the back of her mind whispers), and she just moved in with Mary Margaret, and now she’s being offered a _job_.

It’s a lot, for a woman as independent as she is. As independent as she’s always been.

For Henry, it’s a welcomed change.

For everyone else, it’s red flags.

The apprehension must show on her face, because Graham sends her a grin and offhand comment about dental perks before he backs off.

‘Think about it. Stay awhile.’

And he leaves her with a smile that crinkles his eyes, cranking up the siren for her amusement as he peels away from the curb.

 

The Mayor stalks out of the diner with an ebbing flow of confidence, and the lingering ache of Tallahassee burns.

Emma spills her cocoa, runs into her past, and leaves Granny’s in a foul mood.

‘There are no fairy godmothers in this world.’

 

That night, she flops onto Mary Margaret’s couch with a _floomph_. The teacher looks at her with questioning amusement.

‘Graham offered me a job.’

‘You already have a job,’

‘That’s what I said,’ Emma rolls her eyes. ‘He pushed anyway.’

‘Well,’ Mary Margaret begins in that way Emma is quickly learning to associate with upcoming advice. ‘You’re sticking around town for a while. For Henry. Your belongings are being delivered within the week. And your job, while I’m sure it pays off – well.’

Emma sighs, dropping her head back. “Storybrooke doesn’t have much to offer in terms of bail bondsmen, I hear you.’

‘Right.’

They both fall silent then, but Emma is under no assumption that they’re done. Mary Margaret isn’t one to be overbearing, but she cares for people entirely, and wants what’s best for them.

On the surface, it wouldn’t hurt to take the job. Money, for one. Something extra to shove in the Mayor’s face. Something that builds reason to stick around town.

(For as much as she adores Henry, for as much as she wants to be here for him, always, she still has that underlying, embedded _fear_ of permanence.)

‘Emma.’ Mary Margaret joins her on the couch. The way she sprawled, there’s just enough room left. ‘Take the job.’

She bites her cheek. ‘I’ll think about it.’

 

They wake up to a knock on the door. Or, more accurately: Emma wakes to a knock on the door, Mary Margaret already had coffee and was pulling out the ingredients for breakfast when the boxes were delivered.

‘My stuff,’ Emma moaned, dropping to the floor in both weary happiness and a drowsy, pre-caffeine state of mind.

(She pulls her blanket out first. Priorities. Mary Margaret gives her an affectionate glance, but doesn’t say anything as she folds it and delicately places the keepsake on the chair behind her.)

The weight of the job offer sits heavily on her shoulders still. She carried it well into the night and throughout her sleep, yet is no closer to a decision.

(The obvious answer is there, just in front of her, and she knows exactly what it is, but – _permanence_.)

Mary Margaret makes an offhand comment about her lack of possessions, and Emma almost freezes.

‘I’m – not sentimental.’

Seven addresses in ten years. Not counting all the foster homes.

She wants to be here for Henry.

Her roommate delivers a plate of food. ‘Well, it must make things easier when you have to move.’

 

‘You can go,’ Henry says, and she knows he’s referencing the curse, but her heart just about breaks.

 

In the end, she calls Graham in the same spot she met him – outside the mansion her son lives in. She’s leaning against her car, similar to the way he had been that first night.

If she looks hard enough, there’s something to symbolize there.

Emma pulls his number out of her pocket. She’d been walking around it with all day, and it’s just paper but it’s so much heavier than that because it’s another reason to stay, a reason he gave her, and she has a job already but this –

This is different.

‘Graham? It’s Emma. That job still open?’

 

It’s still light out when she stops by Granny’s. She meets him in the corner booth, where he’s already waiting with two mugs.

Hot chocolate with cinnamon, Emma smirks.

‘So you’re here to stay,’

‘Looks like it.’

He tips his head and she cradled the mug.

Today has been long, filled with hits to her core, and the warmth of a favorite drink is a comfort nearly unparalleled.

‘So,’ Emma starts. “I hate paperwork.’

‘I won’t make you do paperwork.’ Amusement laces his every word. ‘Or at least, not much. The town is quiet, not much happens.’

‘You lost a man who had been in a coma for years.’

‘You got lucky with that.’

She tilts her head. ‘I wouldn’t call it luck.’

‘Fair enough.’

They fall silent then, and she almost brings up the point that a teenage girl, caught up in an unplanned pregnancy and the overwhelming, desperate need to take care of the baby she’s terrified to have isn’t exactly run of the mill police work either, but that’s a can of worms she’ll keep to herself.

‘No uniform, right? That’s a perk.’

‘Oh, there’s a uniform.’ Graham chuckles into his drink.

She raises a brow, pointedly looking him up and down. ‘Really. Leather jacket and a belt, I take it. Tie is optional.’

‘Something like that,’ He grins. ‘Come over to the station? We can knock out the basics tonight.’

‘Why, afraid something is gonna happen tomorrow, keep us occupied?’

They both scoff, because this town really is small and, for the most part, quiet. Anything that does happen is bound to take an hour, max.

(Runaway coma patients and pregnant teens aside, that is.)

Still, they finish what’s left in their mugs, leave a tip for Ruby, and make their way out the door together.

 

If she hates the job, Emma muses to herself, she can always quit.

**Author's Note:**

> title from wish that you were here by florence and the machine.


End file.
